COVID CLAIMS PAYOUTS HAVE HIT NEARLY P20B

TOTAL Covid-19 claims paid by the insurance industry, health maintenance organizations (HMOS), and mutual benefit associations (MBAS) have already ballooned to nearly P20 billion since the health crisis started until the first quarter of this year.

The Insurance Commission (IC) reported on Wednesday that total Covid-19 claims payouts have reached P19.64 billion, of which P2.93 billion was paid in the first quarter of this year, P12.82 billion in 2021, and P3.89 billion in 2020, based on the regulator’s survey results.

Leading the pack among industries with the biggest amount of claims paid so far are life insurers with P10.84 billion. is is followed by the HMO industry (P7.39 billion), MBAS (P882 million), and the non-life industry (P527 million).

Despite the “large payouts” for Covid-19-related claims, Insurance Commissioner Dennis B. Funa said life and non-life insurance sectors as well as the HMOS and the MBAS “remain resilient” amid the pandemic.

“We noted in comparison that the P2.93 billion Covid-19-related claims paid by said industries only constituted 2 percent of the P172.5 billion total benefit payments made by these industries in 2021. While it may be argued that Covid19-related claims only account for a small portion of benefits paid by our regulated entities, the impact of these benefit payments was undoubtedly felt by our fellow Filipinos especially when they needed these benefits,” Funa said.

The Insurance Commission also said that the amount of Covid-19 claims paid from January to March this year was more than double the amount in the same period last year.

In the first quarter of this year, the life insurance industry cornered 61 percent of the total Covid claim payouts, or P1.79 billion.

Next to the life insurance industry are HMOS with P948 million,

non-life insurers, P145 million and MBAS, P49.4 million.

In terms of claims per type of benefit in the same period, death benefits comprised the biggest chunk at P1.65 billion, followed by Out-patient Benefits at P594.8 million, and In-patient claims, P410.7 million.

“Also worth mentioning is that majority of the claims paid by both the life insurance and MBA industries pertain to Death Benefits, while those by HMOS pertain to Out-patient Benefits, and those by the non-life insurance industry pertain to Business Interruption benefits,” the IC said.